Linguistic and vocal information are thought to be differentially processed since the early stages of speech perception, but it remains unclear if this differentiation also concerns automatic processes of memory retrieval. The aim of this ERP study was to compare the automatic retrieval processes for newly learned voices vs phonemes. In a longitudinal experiment, two groups of participants were trained in learning either a new phoneme or a new voice. The MMN elicited by the presentation of the two was measured before and after the training. An enhanced MMN was elicited by the presentation of the learned phoneme, reflecting the activation of an automatic memory retrieval process. Instead, a reduced MMN was elicited by the learned voice, indicating that the voice was perceived as a typical member of the learned voice identity. This suggests that the automatic processes that retrieve linguistic and vocal information are differently affected by experience.Lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) are considered as a typical heavy metals in aqueous solution, which may pose adverse health effects on human beings. For the removal of these two pollutants, magnesium oxide (MgO) was successfully immobilized onto eucalyptus biochar (BC) matrix via simple and cost-effective pyrolysis process of MgCl2-pretreated eucalyptus biomass under high temperature (500 °C). Synthesized MgO nanoparticles-biochar composites (MBC) exhibited superior removal performance for target pollutants, and achieve 99.9% removal efficiency for Pb(II) and Cd(II) at optimum conditions (0.02 g, pH in range of 4-7, and reaction time 120, 240 min). Furthermore, the maximum theoretical adsorbing amount of MBC was 829.11 mg/g for Pb(II) and 515.17 mg/g for Cd(II). Pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir models were well-determined for isotherm and adsorption kinetics. FTIR, XRD, and XPS analysis revealed that precipitation and ion exchange was of great importance for the removal of contaminants. Besides, cation-π interaction and complexation from the carbon-containing functional groups should not be neglected. Considering the advantage of low-cost, facile preparation, and brilliant adsorption capacity, it is anticipated that MBC has a promising prospect for the broad application in Pb(II)/Cd(II)-containing wastewater treatment.It is important to assess the toxic effects posed by soil pollutants toward plants. However, plant toxicology experiments normally involve a considerable amount of manpower, consumables and time. Therefore, the use of metal toxicity prediction models, independent of toxicity tests, is critical. In this study, we investigated the toxicity of different metal ions to wheat using hydroponic experiments. We employed the methods of soft-hard ion grouping, soft-hard ligand theory and K (conditional binding constant based on the biotic ligand model principle) in combination with hydroponic experiments to explore the application of quantitative ion character-activity relationships in predicting phytotoxicity. The results showed that the toxicity of the 19 metal ions tested varied significantly, with EC50 ranging from 0.27 μM to 4463.36 μM. The linear regression relationships between the toxicity of these metal ions and their physicochemical properties were poor (R2 = 0.237-0.331, p less then 0.05). These relationships were improved after grouping the metals according to the soft-hard theory (R2 = 0.527-0.744 and p less then 0.05 for soft ions; R2 = 0.445-0.743 and p less then 0.05 for hard ions). The application of soft-hard ligand theory, based on the binding affinity of the metals to the ligands, showed poor prediction of the phytotoxicity of metals, with R2 = 0.413 (p = 0.024) for the softness consensus scale (σCon) and R2 = 0.348 (p = 0.218) for the normalized hard ligands scale (HLScale). However, the method of K provided the closest fit in predicting toxicity (R2 = 0.803, p less then 0.001). Our results showed that the application of soft-hard ion grouping and log K can improve prediction of the phytotoxicity of metals relatively well, which can potentially be used for deriving the toxicity of elements with limited toxicity data.Drinking water fluoridation was a mid-twentieth century innovation based on the medical hypothesis that consuming low doses of fluoride at the teeth forming years provided protection against dental decays. Numerous studies showed that high level exposure to fluoride could cause dental and skeleton fluorosis. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/mi-503.html However, there was limited study focusing on the fluorosis effect of low levels of exposure to fluoride. Therefore, our study aimed to examine whether the low level of fluoride exposure (measured in blood plasma and household tap water) was associated with the risk of dental fluorosis based on data of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2015-2016. We analyzed data in 2098 children and adolescents who had Dean's Index scores, and water and plasma fluoride measures. The Dean's Index score was measured by calibrated dental examiners using the modified Dean's fluorosis classification system. Fluoride was measured in plasma and household tap water. In this study, we found that the rate of fluoride concentration in water above the recommended level of 0.7 mg/L was 25%, but the prevalence of dental fluorosis was 70%. Binary logistic regression adjusted for covariates showed that higher water fluoride concentrations (0.31-0.50, 0.51-0.70, &gt; 0.70 compared 0.00-0.30) were associated with higher odds of dental fluorosis (OR = 1.48, 95% CI 1.13-1.96, p = 0.005; OR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.44-2.58, p less then 0.001, and OR = 2.30, 95% CI 1.75-3.07, p less then 0.001, respectively). The pattern of regression between plasma fluoride and dental fluorosis was similar. Inclusion, our study showed that even low level of water or plasma fluoride exposure was associated with increased the risk of dental fluorosis. The safety of public health approach of drinking water fluoridation for global dental caries reduction are urgently needed further research.The intensive and long-term use of atrazine in agriculture has resulted in serious environmental pollution and consequently endangered ecosystem and human health. Soil microorganisms play an important role in atrazine degradation. However, their degradation efficiencies are relatively low due to their slow growth and low abundance, and manure amendment as a practice to improve soil nutrients and microbial activities can solve these problems. This study investigated the roles of goat manure in atrazine degradation performance, metabolites and bacterial community structure. Our results showed that atrazine degradation efficiencies in un-amended soils were 26.9-35.7% and increased to 60.9-84.3% in goat manure amended treatments. Hydroxyatrazine pathway was not significantly altered, whereas deethylatrazine and deisopropylatrazine pathways were remarkably enhanced in treatments amended with manure by encouraging the N-dealkylation of atrazine side chains. In addition, goat manure significantly increased soil pH and contents of organic matters and humus, explaining the change of atrazine metabolic pathway.